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Where's God When I'm S-Scared?
Where's God When I'm S-Scared? is the first episode of the Christian computer-animated series VeggieTales. The first story deals with Junior's fear of monsters, while the second story is a retelling of the bible story of Daniel and the Lion's Den. Plot Bob and Larry are on the countertop and they receive a letter from Lucy Anderson from Phoenix, Arizona who is afraid that there are monsters inside her closet. Larry mentions to Lucy that he thought that there were monsters in his closet but turned out be his fluffy bunny slippers. Bob then tells Lucy to see if it's just her slippers and to watch a story about when Junior Asparagus got scared. Tales from the Crisper (See main page for full plot.) Daniel and the Lion's Den (See the main page for the full plot.) Bible Verse Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear for I am with you. Characters *Bob the Tomato *Larry the Cucumber (as himself and Daniel) *Junior Asparagus *Frankencelery (Phil Winklestien) *Mike Asparagus *Lisa Asparagus (Herself and Maid) *Archibald Asparagus (Himself and King Darius) *The Scallions (as the Wisemen) *Penelope Pear (Maid) *Closet Monsters *Qwerty Songs *VeggieTales Theme Song *God Is Bigger *The Water Buffalo Song *King Darius Suite *Oh, No! What We Gonna Do? *We've Got Some News, King Darius *Fear Not, Daniel *You Were In His Hand *The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (some releases) *What Have We Learned Production Before production on the episode began, Phil Vischer had created a screen test called VeggieTales Promo: Take 38 in 1992. He tried to sell the show with the screen test to Christian video distribution companies in hopes that they would give him a budget, but the plan ultimately failed. As Phil tried to sell the show, he and his wife Lisa were in major debt and were struggling to come up with money to feed their then-13 month old daughter, Shelby. After a while, a rich couple at Phil's church dipped into their retirement funds and gave Phil $60,000 dollars to get started on the show. As soon as Phil got the money, he and his bible college friend, Mike Nawrocki, along with two recent art school graduates named Chris Olson and Robert Ellis moved Phil's computer animation system and a couple of office supplies into a rental office at a strip mall somewhere on the north side of Chicago, right between a Mexican grocery store and comic book store. They also set up blinds on their windows so nobody walking by could see them animating. As soon as animation began, Phil showcased VeggieTales in Christian magazines and put a 800 number in the magazine in hopes that people would call in and buy as the show was being made. Before moving into the strip mall location, Phil was originally going to animate the whole episode by himself in his spare bedroom. However, it proved to be a difficult task since he couldn't meet the episode's deadline. As soon as animation was done, editing was underway. Phil was able to rent an editing device for the video for about two weeks. About halfway into editing, the company that the editing machine came from had called and told Phil that time was up on the machine. He managed to dump the footage onto a hard drive and dump the footage onto another editing device. After everything was done, two copies of the episode were made on two VHS tapes and were rushed off for duplication and everyone, who had not slept in a couple days in order to get the show done, slept for a few days while the copies were going off. 500 copies of the episode were sold, which, according to Phil, did not pay for the magazine ads nor the show's production. Home media It was released independently December 21st, 1993 before its 1994 release by Word Entertainment. In 1995, it reprinted the show with special quality. In March 1998, Word Entertainment and Lyrick Studios reprinted the show. In 1999/2000, the show was reprinted with a trailer for Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed. In 2004, it was released to DVD for the first time by Warner Home Video and Sony Wonder as part of the VeggieTales Classics line. In September 2008, it was released as a 15th-anniversary with remastered contrast and sound. Fun Facts Moral(s) *Everyone gets scared. *Don't be afraid of anything. *Don't let fear dictate your life. Explanations *A crisper is the bottom drawer of a refrigerator. This is where poultry and produce should be stored. *This was the first episode to be rendered in SoftImage. Trivia *It was initially released on December 21, 1993 directly from Big Idea based on a "burn-on-demand"-like delivery service. The first tapes were immediately shipped out on December 21 (the day after the episode was finished) and were delivered as promised. This version had several differences compared to the Word Entertainment release. **The theme song is unfinished, and has a couple of differences, the differences are: ***The titles appear earlier. ***Larry nods his head to the camera after Bob says "Have we got a show for you!". This animation wasn't used in the finished theme song until the 1998 version. ***The clip montage begins after "VeggieTales" is sung for the second time. ***Slightly different clips from this episode are used. ***The lyrics "Broccoli, celery, gotta be; Lima beans, collard greens, peachy keen; Cauliflower, sweet and sour, half an hour" aren't sung. Instead the chorus sings “VeggieTales” over and over again until they reach the rest of the song. **The end of each segment has credits **There are a few minor changes. **Like the older VHS tapes, there is a phamplet explaining what VeggieTales is *This marks the first appearance of Junior, his Dad, and Frankencelery and The Scallions. *The shadows on the television show and the pupils are done by motion capture. *Phil came up with the idea of the Daniel story as a musical after watching Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". *The lines Scallions taunting Daniel was improvised by both Mike Nawrocki and Mike Sage. *On the commentary, Mike Nawrocki said that they should redo the episode with new animation and voices, just with the same script. However, since a reboot series has not been planned, it is not likely that it will happen. *The house that Junior Asparagus lives in was modeled after a real rental house that Phil Vischer and his wife were living the time that this episode was in production. *According to Phil Vischer's autobiography, before production on this episode, he tried to sell the show with a little animation test called VeggieTales Promo: Take 38 to Christian video distributor companies in hopes that he'd get the money to make it, but ultimately failed miserably. Phil managed to get the money from a man at his church who dipped into his retirement funds and gave him $60,000. *The 2004 VHS version of the VeggieTales Classics release of this episode was also the only VeggieTales home media that includes VeggieTales Promo: Take 38, as well as other early animation test (including Mr. Cuke's Screen Test) as a bonus feature. Also, this VHS version went out of print in mid-2006 (along with the rest of the VeggieTales shows on VHS due to all shows starting with LarryBoy and the Bad Apple being DVD only), but it can still be purchased on such sites as Amazon and occasionally shows up on eBay for relativity cheap and acceptable prices, but could be a little bit rare to find today. *If you watch the behind the scenes feature on the DVD, Phil Vischer shows an old magazine ad showcasing VeggieTales and the first video (the image was in poor quality, though). In the ad, you will see the character lineup (including Bob, Larry, Junior, Mom and Dad, and the Toaster). The lineup shows a smiling toaster. It is implied that there was going to be a toaster in the show, but it never fell through. *Phil Vischer mentioned in the behind the scenes feature on DVD that, when they were selling the videos through the advertisements, they would promise Christmas delivery for the videos. He and everyone at Big Idea had to make Christmas delivery for the videos or be charged with mail fraud. *During the making of second segment, the animators panicked about making animated lions in the scene where Daniel is thrown into the den as they thought it would be expensive. They decided to go with just making yellow eyes for lions and animate them. Remarks *The audio and visual quality on most re-releases is poor compared to other episodes. Phil apologized about this, stating that it's been re-compressed over the years. The 15th anniversary release tried to fix this by color saturation with mixed results. **However, the footage used for the Silly Song from The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown strangely came out in uncompressed high quality. **On most re-releases, the video cropping was zoomed in a bit. The 15th anniversary DVD reverted the video cropping back to its original state (just like in the original 1993-1994 VHS versions), except that a small, black bar at the bottom of the screen cut off a bit of the bottom of the screen for some reason. *During the first half of the Daniel story, King Darius is seen without his monocle. He later regained it the next morning, though he might be possible that he just work. (See also Goofs) *The 15th anniversary DVD states it includes DVD-rom features, although there's none on the DVD. *Junior has a VeggieTales poster on his bedroom wall with Bob and Larry on it even though he has never seen them before. He did meet them when Bob and Larry arrived in his room. *The first episode where there is little to no texture mapping. Phil Vischer said on the DVD audio commentary that someone actually called him and asked him why he didn't use texture maps. *International versions dub Daniel's version of Oh, No! What We Gonna Do? as simply a spoken part rather than being sung. *Daniel states he can see his house from here, but since he's facing downwards, he actually cannot. *Larry mentions that he has slippers. But since he is a vegetable, he has no feet. *In the bible, King Darius is the ruler of Persia during the lions den story. In this VeggieTales version, King Darius was the king of Babylon. *Dad Asparagus comes in after Junior sings, which somehow he didn't hear him right now in the beginning of the God is Bigger song. Goofs *In the opening countertop scene, the jars behind Bob and Larry show a reflection of the countertop, but in most shots the jars lose the reflection element. *When Frankencelery escapes, part of his head clips through the door entrance. *When Junior's mom tells Junior that the movie he's watching is too scary for him, you'll notice that the necklace she's wearing doesn't move along with her neck, it just stays in place and her body clips through it. *There is a drawing right by Junior's bed. If you pay close attention in the opening scene of Junior in bed, you'll notice that there is Junior's signature. The signature only appears in two shots and doesn't come back. It's featured in opening shot of Junior laying in bed and when Dad Asparagus comes in Junior's room. *When Bob jumps down, his eyes clip through his eyelids. *When Bob explains to Junior Larry's a cucumber, the shadows and the rug on the bottom of screen change. *One shot shows the jars missing. *Junior's "Sing the song!" quote is cropped very poorly. *During the first half of the Daniel story, King Darius is seen without his monocle. He later regained it the next morning, though he might be possible that he just work. Real World References *The first segment's title "Tale from the Crisper" is a spoof on HBO's "Tales from the Crypt". *King Kong is a 1933 film. *The shrill high-pitched music when the Wisemen step into Daniel's house and are about to take Daniel is reminiscence to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". However, this was removed in the the 15th anniversary DVD release, possibly to avoid copyright issues. *Godzilla is a giant lizard monster. Fast Forward *The scientist's voice would be used later for Jimmy. *Junior's room would come back one more time in Are You My Neighbor?, excluding the new room designs in the newer episodes. Episode Transcript * Transcript Gallery pt-br:O Que Fazer Quando Estou Com Medo? es:¿Dónde Está Dios Cuando Tengo M-Miedo? Category:Episodes Category:VeggieTales episodes Category:VHS Category:DVDs Category:1990s Episodes Category:In-house productions Category:Episodes aired on TV Category:Where's God When I'm S-Scared?